A Winter in India

After a visit to the Jama Masjid, the largest mosque in India, and a great lunch at Karim's, we took bicycle rickshaws over to the spice market. This is a wholesale market of every kind of spice you can imagine. Pictured here are red peppers (upper left), turmeric (photo on the right) and coriander and dried mushrooms (bottom left photo). The market is within the remains of a huge old courtyard that still has some traces of what must have been beautiful towers and latticed balconies. Old Delhi declined after India was partitioned at Independnce. The Moslems who lived in lavish homes here moved to Pakistan (or were murdered). Hindu and Sikh Punjabis from the part of Punjab that had suddenly become Pakistan moved in to take their place (that is unless they were murdered on their way here). Many old buildings became warehouses or markets.

The spice market is a series of tiny shops each jam-packed with 3-foot high burlap bags of spices. People are hoisting those onto their shoulders or heads and carrying them to carts to be taken away by wholesale buyers. You can buy small amounts too, and we did.

We enjoyed Old Delhi. People are going about their business, and its an alive and genuine place. Its not about the tourists and we were left alone to wander and shop. Besides spices we found fantastic shops of handmade paper and of very fancy stationery (this is obviously where those really fancy wedding invitation cards come from). These were next to dozens of little shops selling brass hardware, lawnmowers (although I have never seen a lawn here), electrical supplies, etc etc. Everything including the kitchen sink.